What is your "mental account"?

 There are at least three situations in the formation of mental accounts: first, different sources of wealth, second, different consumption items, and third, different storage methods.

　　Don't feel bad about spending any money? Don't think it's a brain teaser, and don't hesitate to say the answer is "spend someone else's money." Let's do this first question: In the hot summer, lying on the beach, you really want to drink a bottle of cold beer. At this time, A: There is only one bar nearby. How much are you willing to pay for a bottle of cold beer? B: There is only one small shop nearby. How much are you willing to pay for a bottle of cold beer? From the point of "want to buy a bottle of cold beer" itself, the answers to the above two questions should be the same, or at least not too different, after all, they are all a bottle of cold beer. But the survey results show that people are willing to spend twice as much in the first case as in the second!

　　People are willing to pay more for the same beer in the same place. Why do people care so much about where their beer comes from? Why do people willingly pay twice as much in a different place of purchase? Back to the title of the article, psychologists will tell you: When people spend "wasted money", people often don't feel distressed! Maybe you are still not convinced, thinking that the cost of opening a bar is much higher than opening a small store, and spending more money is justified. It's true that we wouldn't be too happy about paying twice the price for a cold beer in a bar, but we'd expect it to be too expensive for a cold beer in a small shop.

　　If you think so too, take the cost of the bar as the added value of beer, and think that “1 bottle of cold beer ≠ 1 bottle of cold beer” in different environments, the cold beer sold in the bar should be more expensive than the one sold in the small store. Then ask: "1 yuan = 1 yuan"? The value of all commodities is measured in money, and the "money" as a measure is logically the same in any environment. 1 yuan is always equal to 1 yuan. But is this really the case? Let's look at two examples:

　　Example 1: Couple A traveled to Xiamen, caught some seafood locally, and sent them home for 300 yuan. As a result, it was lost in transit, and the courier company lost 900 yuan. After getting the indemnity, the couple went to a luxurious restaurant that they had been reluctant to go to, and spent 1,200 yuan. Example 2: Xiao B likes a piece of clothing, the price is 1,000 yuan, she thinks it is too expensive and is not willing to buy it. At the end of the month, her husband bought the dress for her birthday, and she was very happy—even though the couple shared the same family bank account. Things like these two examples are very common in life, and we must have heard or experienced similar things: some things are too expensive, and we may always be reluctant to spend that money, but under certain conditions, we Will be very happy to spend. Xiao A and his wife have always been reluctant to go to a luxury restaurant, but they are happy to go after receiving compensation from express delivery; Xiao B is reluctant to buy the clothes she likes, but her husband is very happy to buy it for her-although it is her money.

　　Traditional microeconomics believes that money is irreplaceable, 1 yuan is 1 yuan everywhere, and people who are unwilling to spend 10 yuan do not want to spend 10 yuan in another scene. But the famous behavioral economist Richard Taylor explained that people will divide their minds into multiple accounts of different natures according to the source and use of wealth. Each mental account has separate budget, distribution, and usage rules. It is difficult to transfer money from accounts to different accounts. For Xiao A and his wife, the 900 yuan that the courier company compensated was obviously put into the "windfall wealth" account. If it was put into the "household income" account, they might not have spent so much money. . For Xiao B, 1,000 yuan per piece of clothing may be a bit expensive if it is regarded as a "necessity of life", and it is reluctant to buy it, but if it is a birthday gift from her husband, it is an "emotional expense", then it is relatively easy to accept.

　　Taylor calls these phenomena "mental accounts." So how do these mental accounts come to be? Taylor analyzed at least three situations: one is the different sources of wealth, people are always easy to spend unexpected wealth, and spend more carefully on hard-earned money; the second is different consumption items, and they are careful about life-saving money and pension money. It is relatively tight, but relatively speaking, spending on other projects will not be too thoughtful; third, the storage method is different. For example, some people regard the daily increase of funds and stocks as an increase in wealth, while others do not. .

How does mental accounting help you "calculate"?

　　After proposing the concept of "mental accounting", Taylor followed up with a series of studies to further explore the operating rules of mental accounting. Once at Cornell University, Taylor devised an experimental situation covering four different questions and asked subjects to make judgments. There are two events in each situation, which happened in the lives of A and B respectively, and the subjects need to judge who is happier between A and B.

The first case:

　　A has the opportunity to draw consecutive lottery, the first time to draw 50 yuan, the second time to draw 25 yuan.

　　B drew 75 yuan in a lottery.

Second case:

　　A receives a fine of 100 yuan and another fine of 50 yuan on the same day.

　　B received a $150 fine.

The third case:

　　A won 100 yuan in the lottery, and when I got home, I found that I lost 80 yuan.

　　B lottery won 20 yuan.

Fourth case:

　　A spent 200 yuan to repair the car, and then got 25 yuan by lottery.

　　B repaired the car cost 175 yuan.

　　The purpose of Taylor's design of this experiment is to study the rules of mental accounting and how people calculate losses and gains in their minds. It was found that in the first case, 65% thought A was happier, 18% thought B was happier, and 17% thought A was as happy as B. This shows that, in the face of different income, people usually choose psychological splitting, because splitting can bring greater psychological benefits, and the sum of the psychological benefits of each splitting income is greater than the psychological benefit of the total income.

　　In the second case, in the face of different losses, people will choose to combine them psychologically, and the feeling brought about by the superimposed losses is stronger than that of the one-time loss, so 76% of people think that A who has received two tickets is more frustrated. , 16% think B is more depressed, and 8% think the two feel about the same depression.

　　In the third case, A has a gain and a loss, and B has a gain. Although the two people finally get the same amount, 70% of people think that B is happier than A, 25% of people think that A is happier, 5% I think the two are equally happy. The fourth situation is similar to the third, except that both lose 175 yuan, and it turns out that 73% of people think that B is more depressed, 21% think that A is more depressed, and 6% think there is no difference.

　　Comparing the third and fourth situations, it is found that in the case of one gain and one loss, when the gain is greater than the loss, people will tend to choose the psychological pooling; when the gain is less than the loss, people will tend to choose the psychological sharing. Subsequent research further subdivided the situation where the gains outweighed the losses. After experiencing both gains and losses, when the gains are less than the losses and the difference between the gains and losses is not large, people will choose to combine accounts, thereby reducing the sensitivity to losses. But when the loss is far greater than the gain, people will tend to choose to split the account and follow the "silver ray of sunshine" rule. Even a small gain can still bring comfort after a large loss. To sum up, people's mental accounts generally follow the following rules: the superposition of income sharing can double happiness, the calculation of loss combined can reduce depression, the gain is greater than the loss, the income is combined, the gain is slightly less than the loss, and the loss is reduced. If the gains are far less than the losses, the accounts will be divided to obtain a glimmer of hope.

Have you ever been "calculated" by mental accounts?

　　Mental accounting theory explains why gamblers always have empty pockets. Gamblers are mostly risk takers who keep winnings and losses in two separate mental accounts, and often see winnings as windfalls and put them in the "earnings" account . Stimulated by risk preference and probability preference, they will maintain a large marginal propensity to consume. Once they have a "capital", they will want to invest in it and continue to gamble. Because gamblers do not combine the two accounts of "gain" and "loss", it is difficult for them to realize their true situation, and instead just stare at two separate accounts to make decisions. It is said that there is a saying circulating in Las Vegas: "Never lose the money in the left pocket." In fact, this is to remind gamblers to create a mental account for the money in the left pocket, so that they will never touch the money in that account. money. Most people may not have experienced the psychology of gamblers, but a situation studied by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Tversky may have been encountered by many people.

　　Suppose you are going to buy a jacket and a calculator. In one mall, the price of a jacket is 125 yuan, and the price of a calculator is 15 yuan. If you drive 20 minutes ahead, the price of the calculator in another store is 10 yuan. Question: Would you drive an extra 20 minutes to another mall to buy a calculator?

　　In the same scenario, the price of the jacket is 15 yuan, and the price of the calculator is 125 yuan. Another store 20 minutes away, the price of the calculator is 120 yuan. Question: Would you drive an extra 20 minutes to another mall to buy a calculator?

　　The question in these two scenarios is fundamentally the same, "Would you like to drive 20 more minutes to save 5 yuan". In real life, however, people's responses are so different. According to the experimental results, in the first case, 68% of people choose to go to another store to buy a calculator; in the second case, only 29% of people are willing to drive 20 minutes longer to go to another store to buy. Kahneman explained: Although the total savings is $5, the savings of $5 in the two scenarios mean different things to the experimenter. In the first case, the experimenter perceives a saving of 1/3, while in the second case it is equivalent to only 1/25, so in the first case people are more willing to drive 20 minutes more Go to the next store.

　　Some situations we experience more deeply. During shopping festivals such as "6.18" and "Double 11", we always find it difficult to control the various words such as "coupons", "discount coupons", "minus XX yuan" and "only XX yuan" on the shopping platform. "Excited heart" and "shaking hands", pay in minutes, place an order, and regret it. This is mainly because when we look at products, we tend to set up discount accounts in our hearts, and focus more on "how much discount can I get when I grab this order", rather than reckoning in our hearts.

Whether it’s in money usage, time management, work scheduling, or anything else, we can build up different mental accounts depending on our actual needs.

How to use mental accounts to improve your life?

　　Mental accounts can indeed affect people's thinking and views on many issues, and even bring us some trouble, invisibly "being led by the nose", thus making "irrational" behaviors, but the positive effect of mental accounting is also a lot of.

　　Taylor once introduced the case of his friend Dennis using mental accounts to enjoy life in the book "Nudge". Dennis has always been a frugal person, and at 65, he and his wife are already on pensions. Dennis, who has worked hard for most of his life, hopes that he can enjoy life while he is still in good health, but he is used to saving money and is always reluctant to spend money. Later, he opened a special account for his pension checks, called the "Enjoyment Special Account." The two agreed that the money in this account should be used exclusively for enjoyment. It could buy high-end wine and trendy bicycles, and it could also be used for travel and gatherings with friends, but it could not be used for other family expenses. It worked, Dennis and his wife really started enjoying life with such a small act.

　　Tate also gave another example. He has a colleague who often receives various bills and fines. These miscellaneous expenses bother the colleague. He is both disgusted by the bills and anxious about being fined. Tyler later gave him a little advice that helped him get over the annoyance. The suggestion is this: deposit a fee each year to cover various fines, and each time the money is deducted from this account. As a result, the colleague greatly relieved the psychological pressure caused by the fine because of this small act. In conclusion, whether in terms of money use, time management, work arrangements, or any other aspect, we can establish different mental accounts according to actual needs, and manage our emotions, decisions and behaviors by managing accounts, so that we can keep ourselves The best physical and mental state.